Tags: literature

Nigerian novelist Chigozie Obioma has been appointed the Helen S. Lanier Distinguished Professor of English in the University of Georgia Franklin College of Arts and Sciences department of English. Born in Akure, Nigeria, Obioma is the author of three novels, "The Fishermen" (2015), "An Orchestra of Minorities" (2019), both shortlisted for The Booker Prize, and "The Road to the Country” (2024), a novel about the Nigerian Civil War published in…

The Oklahoma Department of Libraries and the Friends of the Oklahoma Center for the Book Board of Directors has selected UGA faculty member LeAnne Howe to receive the 2024 Arrell Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award in Oklahoma City May 11.  The award is named after Arrell Gibson who was born December 1, 1921, in Pleasanton, Kansas. He earned a B.A. from Missouri Southern State College, an M.A. (1948) and Ph.D. (1954) from the University of…

As a nexus for study and instruction in global languages, the Franklin College connects UGA students with broad opportunities – and qualifies an elite few for the most prestigious scholarships available to American college students. In another outstanding moment in a string of successive achievements, Ashni Patel became the eighth UGA student to receive the Schwarzman Scholarship and will join students from around the world pursuing a one-year…

Books are a big deal. The invention of writing is one of the pivotal moments in the history of humanity, and—in terms of cultural significance—the distance from writing itself to the book is literally just the turn of a page. Books existed long before printing presses. As artifacts, they tell stories that range far beyond the mere words printed or written on their pages. Nora Benedict wants to tell those stories. An assistant professor of…

For Isiah Lavender III, science fiction isn’t just a passing interest or favorite genre. The Sterling Goodman Professor of English in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences says science fiction is a storytelling device that can capture the human experience on an otherworldly level. In this Q&A, he goes over his earliest memory of “Star Wars,” the history of science fiction and Afrofuturism, and his latest book on intersectional…

Over the past few years, the entire world has faced some harsh realities. A pandemic seemingly without end. A war between Ukraine and Russia. An international social movement in Black Lives Matter. For many, these moments in time are only seen through the lens of the fear, unrest and change they ignite.  Cody Marrs takes a different approach. Head of the English department in the Franklin College of Arts & Sciences who…

The National Endowment for the Arts announced that University of Georgia faculty member Aruni Kashyap is one of 22 translators selected to receive a Literature Translation Fellowship.  Kashyap, associate professor of English and Creative Writing in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and Director of Creative Writing Program, will use the time of the fellowship to translate a novel called ‘Udbhashito Upokul,’ by Dipak…

University of Georgia professor LeAnne Howe was awarded the Richard Beale Davis Award for Distinguished Lifetime Service to Southern Letters by the Society for the Study of Southern Literature for her work as a scholar and writer. Howe received the award at the 2022 SSSL conference in Atlanta on June 26. The Richard Beale Davis Award for Distinguished Lifetime Service to Southern Letters is awarded every other year at the biennial…

Art speaks truth in a way that history cannot. Integrating images with text, the graphic novel can illustrate an extremely personal point-of-view. Not only can it convey the internal dialogue of the work’s characters, but it can also deliver a visceral gut-punch with an image or the absence of one. Esra Mirze Santesso, associate professor of English in the Franklin College of Arts & Sciences, wasn’t always a critic and educator of…

The Native American leader and scholar of the Cherokee Nation, Sequoyah (ᏍᏏᏉᏯ Ssiquoya) completed his independent creation of the Cherokee syllabary in 1821, making reading and writing in Cherokee possible. His achievement was one of the few times in recorded history that a member of a pre-literate people created an original, effective writing system, and his…

UGA Eidson Chair of American Literature LeAnne Howe (Choctaw) has coedited WHEN THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD WAS SUBDUED, OUR SONGS CAME THROUGH: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry, the first comprehensive collection of Native poetry. The collection, which gathers work from the seventeenth century to the present, representing more than 160 poets from 91 indigenous nations, is available from W. W. Norton & Company August 25…

Franklin College faculty member Berna Gueneli brings a strong sense for study abroad—and broad study—to her classroom and her research: “Most of my classes are not strictly on film or literature. They are a combination of various media, often with a thematic focus,” she said. “I try to bring in already established canonical voices, like a text by Thomas Mann or Günter Grass, but in the same class, I might also have equally important work by…

The extraordinary treasure that is the University of Georgia libraries has a new digital access partnership with Google Books to digitize about 120,000 of the Libraries’ 4.5 million volumes: Through a new partnership with Google, about 120,000 of the Libraries’ 4.5 million volumes will be digitized, allowing further access to literary, historic, scientific and reference books and journals through UGA’s library catalog as well as one of…

One of the most important writers who has ever lived or written, Toni Morrison passed away today at the age of 88. We spoke with professor of English Barbara McCaskill to help articulate the contributions to world literature of this American giant of letters and culture. “Toni Morrison has made a phenomenal contribution to American and world literature because of how she has told the story of African American history and culture, literally from…

Military historian and professor of history John H. Morrow, Jr. is the 13th recipient of the Pritzker Military Museum & Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing:   The Pritzker Literature Award—which includes a gold medallion, citation, and $100,000 honorarium—recognizes and honors the contributions of a living author for a body of work dedicated to enriching the understanding of military…

Mary Shelley practically invented the horror genre two hundred years ago with "Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus," when she was eighteen years old, relaying her personal tragedy into a horror story for the ages: She didn’t put her name on her book—she published “Frankenstein” anonymously, in 1818, not least out of a concern that she might lose custody of her children—and she didn’t give her monster a name, either. “This anonymous…

Eidson Distinguished Professor of American Literature in the department of English LeAnne Howe is a featured writer in Literary Hub's series "New Poetry by Indigenous Women," curated by Natalie Diaz. According to the editor: "This feature of indigenous women is meant to ... offer myriad ways of “poetic” and linguistic experience—a journey through or across memory, or imagination, across pain or joy or the impossibility of each, across our…

One of the many reasons we love the symbiotic relations between town and gown, music and the university go together like UGA and Athens, GA and there is no better example than ATHfest: AthFest is a multi-day music and arts festival in downtown Athens, GA that showcases local, regional, and national musical talent. The festival includes three outdoor stages, an artist market, a two-night Club Crawl in more than 10 venues, and a three-day KidsFest…